Alec Reid Radio Broadcasts

Alec Reid combines creative and corporate work across a range of media.

At nineteen, he became a studio manager with BBC radio and at twenty-one was broadcasting as an art critic. Three years later, he was responsible for relaying the pictures of the first moon-walk to broadcasters throughout Europe. After a brief spell with BBC2’s "Late Night Line-Up", he went to Radios 1 & 2, producing "Night Ride". There he discovered and gave first broadcasts to many bands, including Genesis and Lindisfarne. That original Genesis session has been released as part of a set of compilation CDs.

He was editor-producer of Radio 4's "With Great Pleasure" and "Time for Verse", and became a well-known creator of documentaries and features. At one point, this necessitated spending a week with the French Foreign Legion! Subsequently he became an award winning director of radio drama.

Later he ran the radio division of the BBC's Corporate Promotions Unit, and wrote and directed a series of fifteen promotions for Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, extolling the BBC's value for money. He also wrote and directed videos.

Throughout his time with the BBC Alec carried on with freelance work. He was involved with the poetry circuit, then wrote and directed two musicals for radio, "Misrule" starring Max Wall and "Gilgamesh" with Ian Holm. He also ran a record company, producing and engineering everything from brass bands to a poetry and music anthology.

Publications include two anthologies based on "With Great Pleasure", magazine articles, and poems in "The Sunday Times". An article about audiobooks and the internet was recently published in the Society of Authors magazine.

In recent years he has developed a niche adapting television and film soundtracks for audio release. This has involved writing and directing narrations, sometimes in character - for Clegg in "Last of the Summer Wine", for the downtrodden Richard in "Keeping up Appearances" and for Norman Wisdom. For "Inspector Morse" and "Kavanagh QC" the narration was more of a novelisation. He has recently adapted episodes of the ‘Inspector Lynley Mysteries’ and ‘Dalziel and Pascoe’. There was one month when his productions were the top three in W. H. Smith's spoken word charts. His production for the BBC of "Diana: A Tribute" won the 1998 Audie award in New York for Original Work. Subsequently he wrote and produced a double CD tribute for the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday, also for the BBC.

Alec has produced hundreds of audiobooks, for Chivers, Audiobooksforfree.com and BBC Audiobooks. He has directed at the Bristol Old Vic, the Arts Theatre in London and the Kings Head in Islington. As a teacher, he coached (and wrote plays for) students at the Birmingham School of Acting and has run workshops at writers’ conferences.

With John Telfer as composer, he wrote book and lyrics for ‘Muscles! The Musical’. The show was premiered at The Landor Theatre in London. Now completely re-written, a larger production is in preparation. In the meantime, Alec and John are busy songwriting. As far as Alec’s family is concerned, however, he has finally arrived in the business, as a guest director of "The Archers". .......N.D., from info. supplied by Alec Reid


Update, Jan 2025: More of Alec's work is now available on the 'audiotera' website, which you can find here. It includes a very engaging drama about horse-racing, entitled 'Goose'.


RADIO PLAYS, BBC
1976 Misrule
1979 Social Welfare, by Barry Bermange
1981 The row over La Ronde, by Frank Marcus
1983 The Wild Man of Oroville, by Tim Grana
1983 The Epic of Gilgamish
1984-87 The Father Brown stories (thirteen plays)
1986 Ice, by James Follett
1988 Bitter Chalice, by Christopher Jones
1988 The Little House, by John Hall
1990 The Machine, by Tony Bagley


RADIO PLAYS AND READINGS, AUDIOTERA WEBSITE
2025 Goose
2025 Dead Ringer
2025 Last Dance Saloon
2025 Foreword / Afterword / Epilogue
2025 For Her Bones
2025 Under The Bridge
2025 Terminate
2025 Peripheral Vision


NOTES

MISRULE....1976
Christmassy music drama with Max Wall and Billy Boyle. Directed by A.R.

SOCIAL WELFARE....1979
- a play; produced by Alec Reid R3 06-May-1979. Cast List : Sean Barrett, Jill Balcon, Peter Wickham.

THE ROW OVER 'LA RONDE'....1981
A dramatisation trial for obscenity of Arthur Schnitzler's play, written by Frank Marcus, writer of 'The Killing of Sister George'. 'The Row' starred Valentine Dyall, Alan Dobie and Jill Balcon. Alec Reid adds........We set up an approximation of a courtroom in the BH Council Chamber, scattering microphones everywhere and placing an invited audience in the 'public gallery', encouraging them to respond with shock, horror or distaste. It was a bitterly cold winter day; some of the more far-flung cast had to struggle through thick snow to get to London.

The Wild Man Of Oroville....1983
By Tim Grana 20.8.1983 With Geronimo Sehmi, Kerry Shale.

THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH....1983
Sumerian epic, realised for radio by Alec Reid. Superb cast includes Max Wall (as the ferryman), Ian Holm, Sean Barratt, Rod Beacham, Sean Probert, Heather Bell, Christopher Scott.

Gilgamish (Gilgamesh - spellings vary) is the oldest story of which we have a written record. A tale 4,000 years old, of the creation of the world - warlike gods, and their creatures, men. Gilgamesh is both god and man, and therein lies his discontent. He goes on a journey to the underworld, looking for the secret of eternal life. The story contains a flood, fire, serpents, monsters; a wonderful moment when Max Wall ferries Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu across to the underworld....and the finding, and losing, of a magical prize.......N.D. .... Recorded in "ambisonics": surround-sound stereo with 'width' and 'height'. The ambisonics master tapes were not kept, but the broadcast still exists in surround-sound.

The Quest of Gilgamesh, a feature programme on the same epic, written & produced by D.G. Bridson, went out on 24.7.56 and is held by VRPCC.

THE FATHER BROWN STORIES....1984-87
Broadcast in two separate series, followed by a single play a year later. In the "Radio Times" issue covering programmes from 1 to 7 December, 1984, was an article entitled "Holy Innocence" by D.A.N. Jones, who commented :-

"Father Brown is one of the great British detectives. He links Sherlock Holmes with Miss Marple. All three are good at exposing the 'least likely person'...............all three detectives in their time seemed the least likely to catch criminals. Holmes was a solitary intellectual, playing the violin unaccompanied, taking drugs on his own and quick to follow every scientific theory. Chesterton became a Roman Catholic whereas Doyle had become a Scientific Spiritualist, who disapproved of unmarried priests advising young girls in ignorance. So Chesterton invented Father Brown as an alternative to Sherlock Holmes.”

Father Brown knows about sin and crime because he has heard so many confessions. His rich friends tend to ignore the working class, but Father Brown knows their virtues and temptations. He is outside the class system; innocent but not ignorant.

Andrew Sachs, who plays Father Brown, says that he read the stories when he was a schoolboy. He considered himself a somewhat unlikely casting : "I've always thought of him as essentially English and I never think of myself as a very English actor nor, indeed, a very English person".

The adapter was John Scotney, and he has caught Chesterton's style well.

Series 1

No. 1 - 02.12.1984 : "The Blue Cross"
No. 2 - 09.12.1984 : "The Queer Feet"
No. 3 - 16.12.1984 : "The Eye of Apollo"
No. 4 - 06.01.1985 : "The Invisible Man"
No. 5 - 13.01.1985 : "The Honour of Israel Gow"
No. 6 - 20.01.1985 : "The Hammer of God"
No. 7 - 27.01.1985 : "The Sins of Prince Saradine"

Series 2

No. 1 - 05.10.1986 : "The Perishing of The Pendragons"
No. 2 - 12.10.1986 : "The Arrow of Heaven"
No. 3 - 19.10.1986 : "The Mistake of the Machine"
No. 4 - 26.10.1986 : "The Curse of the Golden Cross"
No. 5 - 02.11.1986 : "The Actor & The Alibi"

One-Off
29.11.87 “The Absence of Mr. Glass"

The "arch-villain and consummate master of disguise", Flambeau, was played by Oliver Pierre; the producer was Alec Reid at BBC Bristol.

ICE....1986
Thousands of square miles of ice have broken off from the Southern Continent and are drifting towards New York. Can the collision be averted? By James Follett; produced by Alec Reid.


BITTER CHALICE....1988
By Christopher Jones. Recorded May 88, Bristol. Dark deeds in the past wreak havoc in the present. Producer Alec Reid; SMs Dave Tombs, Graham Hoyland, John Devine. Tx 28.10.1989(rpt?), 90min; afternoon play; with Charles Kay/Angela Down.


THE LITTLE HOUSE....1988
By John Hall. Recorded May 88, Christchurch Hall, Bristol. Producer Alec Reid. SMs Dave Tombs, Tony Briskham.


JONATHAN, SON OF JEREMIAH....1990
Not a play - a reading by Andrew Sachs. 5 part abridgement of the novel by Vahan Totovent about an aged potter. Producer Alec Reid.


THE MACHINE....1990, rpt. 1991
R4, rpt. 22 Jul 91: by Tony Bagley - James Bolam as the bailiff in an interesting play set in 1602. The bailiff is in charge of the masterless men who end up on his doorstep, often on the scrounge. But he is obsessed by a machine he has built which can record the human voice. Produced by Alec Reid. Giles Cooper Award 1990.

compiled by N.D from information supplied by Alec Reid, Roger Bickerton, Barry Pike, Ken Cumberlidge

AUDIOTERA 'CHATTERBOX AUDIO' PRODUCTIONS

David was in love with an outdoor girl. They had met during his holiday of a lifetime in Australia, where he had divided his time between luxury hotels and the outback. She taught in a village school.

Back home, he had bought the ring and was getting ready to propose via Skype. He was sure she would say yes. Then there was a massive power cut. The darkness was absolute. It brought back his childhood fear of fairy tales, particularly the one about the troll under the bridge. He never quite believed that the largest Billy Goat Gruff could have despatched the troll with such ease.

And now David could not resist the terror that suddenly confronted him as he stumbled to bring light into the eternal darkness….


TERMINATE
Tammy Wellins' new boyfriend is a secret computer hacker.

Tammy was an influencer and would-be playwright living in a less than glamourous part of Bristol.

Where she lived was a problem for someone ambitious to hit the virtual big time, but on the day which was to change her life, it was not the most urgent one. Her laptop had stopped working. She was in desperate need of a geek in shining armour. Bill fitted the, er, bill. He saved her life, figuratively speaking. He soon shed his armour and demonstrated a flair for amour, which made it inevitable she would move in with him. She wasn’t surprised to find his flat to be full of computers.

He confessed to being a hacker, which worried her, but he had no interest in messing up banks or delving into state secret, which would have reassured her, had he not confessed to something far worse….


PERIPHERAL VISION
This dark tale is a dance to the death. 23m.

Sally was loved by Frank, a glassblower and pseudo-intellectual. She liked going to shows with him, even though she failed to understand why he enjoyed musicals so much. She regarded him as her best friend, although not a ‘friend with benefits’, much to his chagrin.

Those ‘benefits’ were briefly enjoyed by Tom, until Sally abruptly abandoned both the men in her life and moved to a different town. It didn’t live up to her expectations. She was surprised to find that she missed Frank. On the phone one stormy evening, she persuaded him to drive through snow and ice in order to comfort her. His chivalrous behaviour gave rise to supernatural malevolence and violence from beyond the grave…


LAST DANCE SALOON
The pub is a haven and a trap for a despairing writer. 38m.

He had been one half of a ‘creative team’ at an advertising agency. Their vacuous thoughts were turned into award-winning commercials by gifted directors who took the money and ran towards more satisfying, Oscar-winning projects.

In the meantime, he took credit for their work and celebrated accordingly, telling anyone who would listen about the novel he would write when he had the time. His wife, Claire, meanwhile, was building a career as a successful artist. When he lost his job at the agency, they left London and bought a place in the country. There he found the writing process interfered with his drinking and spent more time in the pub than at is desk. Life became darker. A thickening mist began to obscure his consciousness. His local, ‘The Grim Reaper’ began to live up to its name….


FOREWORD/AFTERWORD - EPILOGUE
An ode for the end of the world.

The unreliable narrator of this dark tale will not try to influence your opinion concerning the reality or otherwise of ghosts. Each of his three wives had left him and subsequently died. His life was a mess. He somehow melded logic to a magical inner life, which absorbed him more than anything in the real world. It made him wealthy whilst leaving him lonely beyond the reach of any therapist. He came to welcome the abyss that awaits us all, but then a ghostly and mysterious meeting changed his life beyond even his own imagining….

‘Epilogue’ is a poem for the end of the world.


FOR HER BONES
A grisly and creepy tale of magic and reanimation. 4 hrs 26m.

William Finehand is over two hundred years old. He spent the early part of his life exploring the world and collecting artefacts. His final, troubled voyage took him to the island of Sanguinary. There, Tarbone, a rebellious crew member who claimed to have slept with Finehand’s wife, stabbed him to death. As punishment, Tarbone was cut with a ceremonial knife. Over the following weeks he wasted away and died. His bones were ground to dust. It was the first part of the alchemy that brought Finehand back to life. The process was grotesque, and grisly. When Welbeck, the ship’s captain, chanced upon it, he was pushed to the brink of madness.

Finehand was not a particularly bad man. Certainly, he would not have been seen as such in the century he was born. However, time and circumstances made him a murderer. His tale sweeps across the centuries and is told in many voices, but the woman who might have loved him best fell silent, a victim to his burgeoning


GOOSE!
Drama written by Alec Reid. Don't bet on relationships turning out the way you think ... well-paced story about horseracing, both straight and crooked, and the effect it had on several people's lives. 43m. Drama, recorded for BBC. Cast: Piers Hampton-Ward, Suzannah Hampton, John Telfer.

Sally radiates happiness when talking of her marriage to Alan, the owner of a popular restaurant serving mediaeval banquets. The main course was goose, which she adored. John, her boyfriend, couldn’t keep it down and by the next morning he was history. Or so she hoped. They had been in business together, helping racehorse owners to place large bets on fixed races. Because Alan despised gambling, Sally was scared to tell him about her former business life, still less of her previously rackety love life. It left her vulnerable to a life-changing blackmail attempt. Her whole future was at risk. Then Alan made a shocking confession….

Back to top